Losing It

Yesterday I planned on cutting and bolting the bottom of the cold frame that I’m building. I cut the wood and went to get my drill. I looked all over the workshop. I ran upstairs. I ran outside. I went back to the cellar, out to the garage, back to the workshop. I even looked in the attic. All the time getting more annoyed. A drill does not just disappear! I ran up to the attic and back out to the garage. It’s a drill with a cord. All the extension cords I would use with it were accounted for. Could I have left it in Vermont when I went to Farmer Judy’s build a poultry pen? No, she would have called me. Maybe my daughter’s fiancé used it when he was here? I called my daughter to ask her if she knew where the drill was. The conversation went something like this. Me, “Hi. It’s Mom. I can’t find the drill. Do you have any idea where it is?”. Daughter, “No. You asked me last fall and I told you I hadn’t seen it.” Me, “I asked you this before?” Daughter, “Yes.” Me. “Oh.”

Great, I not only lost the drill. I’m losing my mind also. Scary.

I decided to sit down and think where the drill could be. The car came to mind. Ah ha! I looked in the car. I really thought the car would be it, but there was no drill in the car. I gave up. I was too worked up about it to continue. There would be no cold frame building today.

Later I went out to the garage to give the chickens some fresh water. I saw a dog tie-out chain hanging out of a bin. When I go to Vermont to visit Judy, I bring my dog tie-out chain. I sometimes bring my drill. That bin would have been in the garage all winter. It’s damp. Oh Oh. The drill was in the bin under other things. It was very damp when I took it out. It actually dripped water. I did not plug it in, but set it on the radiator for about 5 hours and them tried it. It worked, but it was dark, and far too late to drill the holes that I had intended to do hours and hours before.

Today, in 10 minutes, I drilled the 6 holes before I could loose the drill again or before I forgot that I even intended to drill the holes.

After this episode with the drill, which is sadly not unique for me, I had an idea. RFIDs are those little chips that are used for tracking inventory and other things. There are a lots and lots of very serious privacy issues surrounding their use. However my half tongue-in-cheek idea, which I’m sure is not new, is to market them to people like me, ageing baby boomers, who forget where they leave their stuff or even forget what stuff they own. I’d put them on all my things and when I lost something, I’d just get my scanner to help me find it. When I get old and forgot even what the name of my stuff is. I’d scan it to find out. I just need to figure out what I’d do if I loose my RFID scanner. Humm.